Pesos-for-pizzas chain defiant despite outrage

Dallas chain gets flood of e-mail from people outraged about its dual-currency policyPizza parlor takes pesos — and flak as well

ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

Published 6:30 am, Saturday, January 13, 2007

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Chronicle

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Jorge Gutierrez carries pizzas at Pizza Patron, near a sign that says in Spanish, "We accept pesos." Some customers have criticized the Dallas-based chain for accepting the Mexican currency.

Jorge Gutierrez carries pizzas at Pizza Patron, near a sign that says in Spanish, "We accept pesos." Some customers have criticized the Dallas-based chain for accepting the Mexican currency.

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Chronicle

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Marybel Rodriguez, with pesos in hand, turns to look at a menu at a Pizza Patron in Houston. She visited San Luis Potosi for the holiday and came back with some extra pesos to spend.

Marybel Rodriguez, with pesos in hand, turns to look at a menu at a Pizza Patron in Houston. She visited San Luis Potosi for the holiday and came back with some extra pesos to spend.

Photo: Mayra Beltran, Chronicle

Pesos-for-pizzas chain defiant despite outrage

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Pesos for pizzas. It seemed innocent enough. But after a Texas pizza chain this week began accepting Mexican pesos in exchange for piping hot pies, the company was flooded with thousands of e-mails.

"What you are doing is unpatriotic. THIS IS AMERICA NOT MEXICO!" one message read. "Get the hell out of this country!!!!" said another. "This is America where the currency is the U.S. Dollar. If you want to accept the peso, go to Mexico!"

But for Elizabeth Perez, who on Friday was awaiting her pizza order at a Pizza Patron restaurant on Airline Drive in Houston, it just makes good business sense. Why not, she said, spend leftover pesos in the United States instead of waiting until she returned to Mexico?

"We always have a lot of money left over when we go to Mexico, so why not waste it here?" Perez said.

Dallas-based Pizza Patron chain, with five restaurants in Houston, said it's pesos-for-pizzas campaign has been an overwhelming success. But the promotion has also stirred a wave of anti-immigrant feelings. At a restaurant on South 75th Street this week, a man entered the store and asked what currency was accepted. When the manager said he could pay in pesos or dollars, the man said, "Pesos are for Mexico and we're in the United States."

Then he left the store.

Andy Gamm, a Pizza Patron spokesman in Dallas, said he was taken aback by the protest. He said the small pizza chain never intended to get in the middle of the national immigration debate, but is undeterred by the controversy.

"We have no intention of stopping it," he said. "We're happy, we couldn't be happier."

He said most of the negative e-mails are anonymous, and though many say they will no longer patronize the business, many come from states where Pizza Patron does not have any locations.

The chain has 59 locations throughout the Southwest, including the five in Houston.

"A majority of the negative e-mails we've been getting are coming from states like Connecticut, North Dakota, Indiana and Ohio, states that aren't known for having strong Hispanic demographics," Gamm said.

He said Pizza Patron has been doing business in the Hispanic community in Dallas for 20 years and that 60 percent of its customers are Hispanic.

Once just a joke

Over the years, he said, customers would come into the stores and jokingly ask if they accepted pesos. Gamm said company officials finally asked, "Why not?" and began posting "
Aceptamos pesos
" signs on store counters.

"If we could get those pesos that were sitting in a drawer at home, get them out of those drawers and in our stores we would be on to something that would be difficult for competitors to duplicate," Gamm said.

He said the practice of accepting pesos for goods is common along the border, but nonexistent hundreds of miles farther north.

Gamm estimated that 10 to 15 percent of Pizza Patron's business this week has been in pesos, making the effort worthwhile. The chain will evaluate the promotion in February and determine whether to continue it.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't start seeing some stores accept pesos," he said.

Luis Pedroza wouldn't mind seeing that happen. Pedroza, who like Perez had spent the holidays with family in Mexico, has been carrying a few hundred pesos he brought back with him.

When he read about the promotion in a Spanish-language newspaper, he decided to check it out and walked out of the Pizza Patron on Airline with two large pizzas.

He said most people spend leftover pesos before crossing the border. But he didn't have time for that.

"I usually wait until I went back in six months or so (to spend the pesos). I don't know when I would be back," he said.

Elizabeth Perez said she usually hangs on to her pesos until her next visit with relatives. And she's not alone.

"I know a lot of people who come back with a lot of pesos," she said. "It would be nice to go to a little convenience store and use your pesos."

As for the controversy, Perez just shrugged her shoulders.

"They're just mad because they didn't think of the idea in the first place," she said.

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